While my master’s program did not include a thesis, it did require us to undertake a massive capstone project. The Emerging Media master’s program focuses on innovation, project management, and design thinking. I pitched an idea that I thought could solve issues I had observed. The research division of the student-run advertising agency at UGA wanted to pitch themselves to potential clients for funding, but they had a few hurdles to overcome. Hardly anyone knew what the division, named Fetch, actually did, and Fetch had no research from previous years to show off. It’s kind of hard to pitch your work if no one knows who you are and you have no work to show off.

I created an internal website, Fetch Backstage, that houses pre-made data visualizations made with Tableau for members of Fetch to use in pitch presentations. I made branding standards for the website as well as the data visualizations, as well as some advertising materials like a trailer and poster. To make sure Fetch Backstage would work well, I conducted a user experience (UX) study where I asked current Fetch members to do certain tasks on the website. If it took too long to complete a task or it was so difficult a member said it was ‘impossible’, I knew I had to go back to the drawing board.